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blackjack soil of central Virginia in the late 1700s. By the 1820s its owners were ready to build a Greek-revival manor house of modest proportions. The house remained virtually unchanged for the next 160 years until the present owners, pressed for space, decided to add wings to both ends of the structure. I was hired by Home Tech Construction of S Sperryville, Virginia, to build windows and French doors for the project (photo facing page). Although no French doors exist in the original structure, it was decided that the new doors should mimic the original window sash, using the same narrow muntin width and profile. (For a glossary of millwork terms, see drawing right.) Muntins are a good historical indicator of a home's vintage because they evolved in accordance with prevailing architectural fashions. (See FHB #20, pp. 59-63.) The muntins at Summerduck are a slender a simple profile consisting of two almost-quarter ellipses (drawing bottom right). The curves intersect in a clean arris without the intervening flat surface that is found on most muntins. This pattern is consistent with the austere Greekrevival detailing found throughout the house. The ancient Greeks and their American imitators based molding profiles on the ellipse rather than the circle, holding it to be the more graceful of the two forms. % Thicker doors are more stabJe-The first decision to be made about the doors was their thickness. The job required two different door heights: regular 6-ft. 8-in. doors in one wing and 7-ft. 4-in. doors in the other. doors from 8/4 stock, yielding a net thickness of in. For the taller version, I used 10/4 stock, which dressed out at 2Y.. in. The added thickness gives the tall doors a solid feel when they close and makes them less likely to warp. A door that warps after all the work you've put into it is a real heartbreaker. There isn't much you can do to fix it. The added cost of thicker stock is cheap insurance against this contingency. Although my customers wanted the look of l'Y. old French doors, they also wanted double glazing for energy-efficiency. With such a narrow muntin, the use of sealed, insulating-glass units was out of the question. The Y..-in. wide rabbet would fail to hide the metallic spacer separating the two layers of glass. To meet the doubleglazing requirement, we decided on a removable, single-pane "energy panel" set flush with the outside of the door. The original plan was to edge this panel with a thin aluminum frame, known in the glass trade as a C-sash. The panel would sit in a rabbet on the outside of the door, Drawings: Dan Thornton. Photo facing page: Reese Hamilton. [ Temporary "horn" Bottom rail Hinge stile Energy panel allows narrow muntins. To make a door that was both energy-efficient and in keeping with the narrow muntins of the original windows, a sheet of glass was installed flush with the outside of the door. The glass is held in place with removable trim. Glass energy panel Caulk Removable molding made the 6-ft. 8-in. in. wide, molded with ummerduck Farm was staked out in the rich The language of millwork. The blind tenons connecting the top and bottom rails to the stiles were cut back, or haunched. This technique leaves more "meat" in the stile, preserving the strength of the door. Top rail Haunch Blind tenon Vertical muntin Cross muntin Blind mortise and tenon Lock mortise Cutting mortises. The author used a hollow-chisel mortiser to cut mortises in the four cross muntins. To reduce tearout, the mortises were cut in stock that was later ripped into three muntins. Stub tenons fit in through mortise Lock stile Sticking pane December 1996/January 1997 71